


Found

by whattheskyknows



Series: Amasai Week 2020 [5]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Amasai Week 2020, I gave some of Rantaro's sisters names, M/M, Rantaro has complicated feelings, continuation of Home, they sorta have a role in this story, this fic relates to the prompt because Rantaro's sisters are his treasure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:54:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23346526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whattheskyknows/pseuds/whattheskyknows
Summary: At least Rantaro seems a little more at ease now. He’s looking at his sisters with an expression of happiness now instead of an expression of sadness.For the prompt Treasure
Relationships: Amami Rantaro/Saihara Shuichi
Series: Amasai Week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140761
Comments: 2
Kudos: 51





	Found

**Author's Note:**

> This is gonna be the last time I'm gonna use the amasai 2020 tag since the next two fics are gonna take so much more longer to write. I've been writing these fics daily and the next two are gonna be rather long and impossible to write in a day. They're still gonna be amasai though! But I'm so thankful this amasai week was created! I've had so much fun! 
> 
> This fic isn't as angsty as the last one but Rantaro cries and that's enough for me to say that maybe this fic is sorta sad after all. 
> 
> Additional notes, I have no creativity so I gave Rantaro's sisters rather random names. However, it would've been confusing if I called every single one of them 'Rantaro's sister' so I tried my best. There's really no meaning why I picked the names.

The paper bags crinkle as Shuichi places them on the counter top with a sigh of relief. His arms hurt because he’s been carrying the bags for a solid hour now because somehow he was possessed to believe walking to a shop an hour away to buy shopping was a good idea. Then again, it was Rantaro who proposed the idea because he said he really didn’t want to drive today and that’s fine. Shuichi gets it, Rantaro really doesn’t like cars and so if he wants to walk then they’ll walk. 

It’s just, it might take a couple of minutes before Shuichi decides to do anything because he’s rather tired right now. He can’t wait around for too long though because the party is going to start soon and Shuichi knows for a fact that Rantaro is excited for it. He’s spent the last month planning it. 

However, it was last night when Rantaro abruptly sat up in bed and almost caused Shuichi to fall out of it. He said that they forgot about the food. Shuichi had responded that there’s plenty of food in the house. Rantaro argued that whilst yes, there is food in the house, none of the food is any of his sister’s favourites. 

Which is why Shuichi is currently sprawled out on the couch in Rantaro’s kitchen. Why is there even a couch in the kitchen anyway? Sure, it’s a nice couch and it has plush pillows and it’s actually really, really soft and Shuichi wonders if there’s a way to sneak the couch out of the house without anyone noticing. Rantaro probably won’t mind but the police will so Shuichi decides to leave the couch where it is. Unfortunately. 

He slides an eye open when he hears Rantaro start to laugh at him. Of course he’s laughing at him. Not in a cruel way, of course. Rantaro is far too kind and sweet to ever be actually mean to Shuichi. The only person Rantaro is mean to is himself, which is a shame because Shuichi has already vowed to throw fists with anyone who is mean to his boyfriend and it’s not like he can beat up Rantaro for feeling sad. He’ll have to figure out a different tactic. 

“You okay there, Shu?” Rantaro asks. He doesn’t look tired at all, which is really unfair. 

“Tired,” Shuichi huffs, burying his face into a white pillow. “My arms hurt.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Rantaro says. 

Really, it should be illegal for Rantaro to say things like that. Shuichi doesn’t know whether to bury his face into a pillow or throw one at him. He decides that it’s probably smart enough to just bury his face into one because they feel nice and he doesn’t want them to get dirty, even though the Amami family has more than enough money to replace a dirty pillow. 

“Don’t be,” Shuichi responds finally. He knows he should get up because if he stays on the couch for too long then he’s going to doze off and he knows Rantaro is kind enough to just let him sleep instead and Shuichi doesn’t want Rantaro to have to sort out the food all on his own. He pulls himself up into a sitting position even though his arms protest. He’ll just have to have a long soak in a bath later. “What do we need to do first.”

“Sort everything out,” Rantaro explains. “I’m gonna sort out all of the ingredients into different piles and then we can start preparing food after that. You remember how to make a cake, right?”

“Yeah.” Shuichi actually bakes a lot with Kirumi on nights he can’t sleep at the academy. They all live there and technically, the kitchen is supposed to be off limits but someone (Kokichi) keeps unlocking the door and someone (again, Kokichi) doesn’t bother to lock it back up afterwards after grabbing a snack. One night, Shuichi found Kirumi baking in the kitchen at four in the morning. She let him join in after seeing the distressed look on his face. It was fun even though Shuichi’s first cake was very flat. 

After that night, Shuichi found out Kirumi does a lot of the cooking for the academy. She works well with Teruteru apparently since he doesn’t dare flirt with her. The first time he did, he got rejected so hard he didn’t speak for a full week. Now, he sort of respects her and the two of them have a nice routine going. Kirumi favours making more sweet dishes and is excellent at desserts whilst Teruteru focuses on the main meals. 

“Good,” Rantaro says as he chuckles. “Because I don’t and I can’t find any cookbooks anywhere.”

“You could always just use your phone?” Shuichi suggests, pulling out his own. He notices he has a new text message from Kaito, which is just him telling Shuichi he hopes he has a nice day. 

“Where’s the fun in that?” Rantaro responds, grabbing a large brown bowl out of one of the cupboards and putting it to one side. “Books just feel more authentic. I feel more professional reading from one of them than a phone.”

“You’re too old fashioned,” Shuichi says, rolling his eyes. “Do you even know how to cook anything without a recipe to follow? I’m not letting you burn your house down, you know?”

Rantaro at least looks a little bashful. “I-I won’t burn anything down! You should have more faith in me. I’ve only set one thing on fire in my entire life. Wait, no, maybe two? Actually, there was this one time…”

Shuichi sighs as he stands up. He’s less hesitant to tease Rantaro now that they’ve been together a little longer. Shuichi is the sort of person who has to test the waters first and figure out what a person is like before coming out of his shell a little more. He tries to respond appropriately depending on the other’s personality. He knows Rantaro is a laid back person and can take a joke. Besides, Rantaro teases him too. Or perhaps teasing is putting it lightly? Shuichi swears the only reason Rantaro gets out of bed some days is so he can fluster him as much as possible. Sadly, Rantaro always succeeds. 

“I know where the fire extinguisher is if you do actually decide to start a fire,” Shuichi tells him, half joking but half being serious. “Just, you know, maybe try not to start one on purpose?”

“Now why would I do that?”

The sun that shines through the window and lights up the black marble counter top quite nicely, making it sparkle. Shuichi can tell that the kitchen is frequently cleaned as there’s not even a single crumb anywhere, which is sort of a miracle. He almost feels bad that he’s going to have to mess the room up a little because he knows Rantaro has been eyeing up a bag of flour and he has a feeling he’s not going to leave this room without a food fight. 

Rantaro slides him a bowl full of ingredients, which are all neatly packed and sealed. Shuichi is sort of excited to start truth be told. There’s something relaxing about baking cakes. He’s not a huge sweets person and when he does bake, he only eats one slice. That’s mostly due to the fact that the rest of the class usually pounce on the cake before he can even think about sneaking a second slice. The only person who ever successfully gets a second slice is Ryoma, because he’s the one who always sneaks away with the last slice whilst everyone argues over who gets it. 

(Then again, Shuichi has also seen Gonta get the last slice on occasion. He’s one hundred percent sure it’s Ryoma who slips him it. Gonta’s face lights up every time.)

Shuichi settles on making a vanilla cake and a chocolate cake. Rantaro’s sisters all gave varying answers on what their favourite cake is and Shuichi has decided it’s probably safer to just make two basic cakes. Hopefully, they don’t turn their noses up at his choice. It’s not like it will be the end of the world if they don’t like his cake. It’s just, Shuichi’s self esteem might take a hit. 

He hums as he sorts out the ingredients, counting out eggs and putting them to the side, chopping up butter, melting chocolate. He’s so engrossed that he doesn’t notice Rantaro send him soft looks.

“You know what, you’ll probably be good at ASMR,” Rantaro suddenly says. 

Shuichi almost drops an egg. “Where did you even get that idea from?”

“You have a soft voice,” Rantaro tells him. “And you like to listen to it occasionally, right?”

“It doesn’t mean I’ll be any good at it,” Shuichi murmurs, cracking an egg into a bowl. “And it’ll be really embarrassing.”

Rantaro shrugs. “No video can be as bad as the one Ouma posted.”

“You mean the video that got taken down within a day?” Shuichi asks. 

“I mean, the video was an absolute mess. I think it was supposed to be a podcast.” Rantaro pauses, deep in thought. “But for the entire time, Iruma was moaning into a microphone, Shinguji was doing his weird laugh, Yumeno was snoring and I’m pretty sure Angie was there too. Ouma and Gonta talked the entire time normally though, which kind of makes the entire video even funnier.”

Shuichi tries to hide a laugh but fails. “I remember that video now. Don’t tell anyone but Harukawa actually laughed at it a couple of times. 

Rantaro gasps dramatically. “She what?!”

“Shh!” Shuichi glances around as if Maki is in the kitchen. 

Rantaro turns on a radio and the room fills with music as the two prepare for a late lunch. Shuichi has already made the batter for one cake and is pouring it into a tin. He’s not really sure what Rantaro is doing because the last time he checked on him, he was trying to open a can with unsuccessful results. 

It’s a relaxing atmosphere. Shuichi actually feels calm for once as he opens up the oven door and slides two trays inside. He can hear the humming of the oven and warmth hits him as he crouches down to make sure the trays are inside properly. Once he’s satisfied, he stands back up and washes his hands, using the lemon scented soap that Rantaro always buys. It’s a nice smell actually. There’s something about the scent of lemons that makes Shuichi feel more clean after washing his hands. 

“Oh!” Rantaro pauses, dropping some dough onto the counter top. “Shu, will you be okay if I leave for a couple of minutes? I think someone is calling me.”

“Sure.”

Shuichi watches as Rantaro dashes from the room, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he leaves. 

He decides to clean up whilst he waits, wiping down any surfaces he’s been working on. He hums along with the music, quiet enough that only himself can hear it. He turns to rinse the cloth he’s been using when he feels something latch onto his leg. Honestly, it actually surprises him but he quickly realises that it’s no one dangerous. 

Shuichi thinks it’s Miyu who is currently holding his leg. He hopes he has her name right. She’s almost three years old and was only a baby when she was lost. Thankfully, Rantaro’s oldest sister, Aya, was with her the entire time so they never became separated. Shuichi just thinks it sad how Rantaro’s parents didn’t put too much effort into trying to find their baby, who was apparently only a couple of weeks old when she went missing along with Aya. 

Both Aya and Miyu were left behind in America but thankfully when Shuichi eventually found them, they were still together. They had been taken in by an older man. He seemed nice enough, although Kokichi had questioned him relentlessly until he was satisfied. Whilst Kokichi acts childish most of the time, when it comes to actual children he becomes serious, which had surprised Maki and Kiyo quite a bit. 

“Um, hello!” Shuichi squeaks. He has no idea what to do. Why is she even in here? She must’ve crept out whilst the other sisters were playing. 

Miyu laughs at him and hugs his leg tighter, her light green hair bouncing up and down. She has rather thin hair that curls around her head and her hair even has a couple of blond highlights. Which makes sense really because her mum also has blond hair. 

This makes Shuichi wonder how many wives Rantaro’s father has gone through. 

He doesn’t want her to hurt herself so he picks her up. She squeals at this, wrapping her arms around his neck as he moves back over to the couch and sits down on it. Miyu seems happy enough to sit on his leg.

“Hiya!”

“H-Hello!” Shuichi really is in the deep end right now. At least Miyu doesn’t seem to notice. 

“When’s food?”

“Soon,” Shuichi reassures her. She’s looking at the counter top and oven with intrigue. It’s likely she wants to go over and check it out for herself. However, Shuichi doesn’t want her to open the oven and burn herself or accidentally fall climbing up the cupboards. Instead he tries to distract her. “What have you been playing?”

“Princesses!” Miyu answers. Which probably does make sense. She has a plastic tiara on her head and glitter on her face. “Wanna play?”

“Ah, sorry, I’m sort of busy right now,” Shuichi explains. “You can go back to playing if you want?”

“Where’s Taro?”

“He’s busy right now,” Shuichi explains. “But he’ll be back soon! He’s just on the phone with someone really important I think.”

“Want Taro!” Miyu insists and she screws her face up. 

Shuichi, of course, panics because there’s no way he’ll be able to deal with a crying almost three year old on his own. He has no idea what to do himself when he starts crying, which is embarrassingly quite a lot, so he starts to look around the room in search of a distraction. It’s sort of difficult because he’s in a kitchen and there’s not much to offer in here for children. 

Thankfully, another one of Rantaro’s sisters burst through the doors. He thinks it’s Suki. She’s the one with glossy hair that sits at her shoulders. She’s one of the older sisters, being around fourteen maybe. She’s rather quiet. Shuichi found her wandering the streets in Ireland. Thankfully, she wasn’t homeless, which had been Shuichi’s first thought. A young woman has been looking after her for a couple of years now, giving Suki her spare bedroom. (In fact, Suki and the woman get on so well that Suki has decided to continue living with her. Rantaro has accepted this but he’s still a little sad but he wants what’s best for his sister. She’s already agreed to visit a couple of times a year.)

She looks tense before noticing Miyu is with Shuichi. Still, she seems too shy to say anything and her cheeks go red when she sees Shuichi. 

“Suki! Suki!” Miyu chants, climbing down off the couch before Shuichi can even stop her. She flies towards the other girl and firmly hugs her around her stomach. 

“Hello,” Suki says softly and pats Miyu’s head. Suki has definitely got Rantaro’s patience, although she’s much more reserved. “Um…”

“Are you okay?” Shuichi asks her. 

Suki goes red and hesitates before pointing to the kettle. “I really...can...please can I make some tea?”

“Of course,” Shuichi says.

Suki nods and carefully peels Miyu from her to go to the cupboards. She reaches for the cups and brings two down and looks at Shuichi and the cup a couple of times until Shuichi realises he’s asking him if he wants a cup too.

“Oh, yes please,” Shuichi says. “No sugar, thank you.”

At least Suki looks a little calmer now and goes to the sink to fill the kettle up. 

Miyu has decided to climb back onto the couch again, knocking off her plastic tiara in the process. Shuichi picks it up before it can get broken and places it next to him. Even though it’s plastic, it feels like it’s made out of something expensive. The fake jewels inside of it almost look real too. 

The kitchen door opens again and two more girls run inside. It’s the twins, Ran and Rin. It was the mother who named them both and it’s highly likely she forgot about Rantaro when naming them. Still, Ran seems pleased knowing that her name is really similar to her older brother’s. 

They’re both nine years old now and went missing when they were four. They were both left in France together and had been both found by the police. Despite all of their efforts, they weren’t able to contact Rantaro’s parents so they were both put into care until two women adopted them. They’re actually really nice and when Shuichi spoke to them, he found out they’ve been married for over ten years. 

“Suki! You’re missing out!” Ran cries.

“You’re the only one who can tie my hair up properly!” Rin adds. 

Both Rin and Ran have fairly long hair that runs down their backs. Their hair colour is a darker green. Ran usually has her hair tied up in pigtails whilst Rin wears her hair loose. 

Suki looks like she’s seconds away from fainting. 

“How about you both wait for her in the living room?” Shuichi suggests. “Suki will just be a second.”

Rin’s face screws up but at least Ran accepts his advice. 

“C’mon!” Ran says, grabbing Rin’s hand and running back out of the kitchen. 

Suki looks a little less frazzled now as she pours water into the cups carefully. She leaves one cup on the side and passes one to Shuichi.

“Thank you.”

“Y-You’re welcome,” Suki says and grabs her own cup. She runs out of the room, clearly overwhelmed from talking to someone she doesn’t really know. 

“Do you want to join her?” Shuichi asks Miyu.

“Taro!” Miyu shouts in response. “Taro! Taro! Taro!”

“He’ll be back soon,” Shuichi reassures her. 

She, of course, starts kicking the couch as tears start to pool in her eyes. She seems very frustrated for a two year old. Then again, most two year olds haven’t been abandoned in a different country for several years. 

“Hey!” Shuichi turns to her. “Please don’t cry.”

“But I want Taro!” Miyu pleads. “Miss him!”

“Miyu! Hey, hey!” Thankfully, Rantaro returns. He looks a little distressed but maybe that’s because his sister is crying. Miyu dives for him and Rantaro picks her up and spins her around. “I thought you were playing with the others?”

“Wanted to see Taro!” Miyu says, her hands stretching out happily. 

“Well, you’ve seen me!” Rantaro puts her down. “If you stay in here for too long then you’ll ruin the surprise!”

“Surprise?” Miyu’s eyes light up in wonder. 

“Yeah, there’s gonna be a surprise but it’ll only be a surprise if you go back in the living room,” Rantaro explains. 

His answer satisfies Miyu as she dashes from the kitchen, giggling loud enough that Shuichi can still hear her even after the door is closed. 

“Sorry for taking so long,” Rantaro says, taking a seat next to Shuichi and sighing. “That was one of my dad’s wives. She said that she can’t make it.”

Shuichi pulls a face. “I’m sorry.”

“Hey, I’m not too upset about it,” Rantaro says. “I think some of my sisters might be though. Honestly, I don’t understand why she isn’t trying harder. She hasn’t seen some of her daughters in years and now she isn’t even putting in the effort to see them!”

Rantaro sounds rightfully frustrated. Shuichi places his forehead on Rantaro’s back as Rantaro leans forwards, his elbows resting on his knees as he runs a hand through his hair. 

“Your sisters get to still see you,” Shuichi points out. He’s not sure if he’s helping right now. He slides his arms around Rantaro. “They were all super excited to see you when we found them, you know?”

“Most of them don’t even want to stay here,” Rantaro responds. He’s obviously trying not to sound too bitter and disappointed. “Aya and Suki have already said they’re staying with their new families and I’m pretty sure Hana wants to go back to Spain too. I can’t stop them but I can’t help but feel like it’s my fault they don’t want to be around me anymore.”

“It’s definitely not you,” Shuichi quietly says. “You’re here for them now, aren’t you? Miyu was also excited to see you just before. And Suki is comfortable around you even though she seems like a really shy girl.”

“She is really shy,” Rantaro says. “It took her years to start speaking. I bet losing her didn’t help with her self confidence either.”

Shuichi squeezes tighter. “None of this is your fault. I know how hard you’ve worked trying to find all of your sisters and I’m sure they realise how hard you’ve tried too. None of them have acted hostile towards you have they?”

“No,” Rantaro says. “It’s just, I spent years looking for them and you manage to find them in a week. That just makes me look pathetic.”

Oh. “You never mentioned this before,” Shuichi murmurs, his chest tightening. “I…”

Rantaro licks his lips. He needs to put more lip balm on soon. “I’m sorry. I know I sound really ungrateful but I can’t help but feel useless.”

“Rantaro…” Shuichi closes his eyes. “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t think about how you’d feel when I went to find your sisters. I just wanted you to be happy. I, ah, didn’t consider that finding them so quickly would make you feel this way.”

“It’s not your fault,” Rantaro insists. “It’s more of a me problem and I sort of don’t want to talk about that right now. I know you didn’t mean any harm.”

Shuichi swallows. “I would never have found them on my own. Ouma’s favour really helped us actually. Do you remember Kuzuryu? It turns out he’s got eyes all over the world. He sent out strict instructions to keep an eye out for your sisters and that’s how we found most of them. I mean, I was kind of panicked when Ouma told me he got the yakuza to help us but it did make the process a lot quicker. I think that’s what Ouma meant when he said he had a lot of connections. 

“Harukawa and Kuzuryu have worked together too in the past so she knew we could trust him. I think she came along just in case something went wrong. Shinguji was sort of oblivious we were working with dangerous people but he was the one who managed to locate each sister when we were given the right information. Kuzuryu let us borrow some boats and planes and told us to leave any legal problems to him. I think he’s the reason why your sisters managed to get back into Japan so easily.”

Rantaro can’t help but turn a little pale. “I still feel a little sick thinking about it.”

“I’m sorry,” Shuichi says again, even though he knows it isn’t his fault that so many people got involved. “If it helps, Kuzuryu told me in private he would’ve helped even if he hadn’t owed Ouma a favour. He said he knows what it’s like to lose a sister, although when he talked about his he had this distant look in his eyes.”

“I’ll have to thank him when we go back to school,” Rantaro says quietly. 

“But just remember that you’re not useless,” Shuichi tells him. “You’re human.”

“Shu…” Rantaro takes a deep breath. He doesn’t want to cry just in case one of his sisters comes wandering back into the kitchen. Instead, he turns around instead and hugs Shuichi as hard as he can without hurting him. “Thank you.”

“It’s no problem. All I want is for you to be happy.”

“I know,” Rantaro says. “But Shu? Next time, please don’t work with such dangerous people or at least inform me first next time. I almost had a heart attack when you told me you had worked with the yakuza.”

“Isn’t it better that I worked with them instead of them chasing me?” Shuichi asks. 

“Please don’t make me think about that,” Rantaro shudders. “I don’t even think about that happening.”

Shuichi smiles and jumps when he hears the oven go off. 

“The cakes!” Shuichi jumps up and quickly slips on some pale glove oven mitts, rushing to the oven to take them out. 

\---

Lunch is rather successful. Everyone enjoyed all of Rantaro and Shuichi’s hard work, which pleased Shuichi. 

Now, everyone is playing in the garden as the sun is setting. Rantaro and Shuichi are sitting on a swinging bench, which is really cool actually. Well, it’s more like Rantaro is sitting whilst Shuichi is lying on the bench, his head in Rantaro’s lap because he really is tired now. There’s just something about being around people that exhausts Shuichi. 

Rantaro is running his hand through Shuichi’s hair, who in turn is very much enjoying the attention he’s receiving. Rantaro tries not to compare his boyfriend to a cat, as that would be a little strange but he can’t help it. 

“Yuka leaves tomorrow,” Rantaro says absentmindedly, pushing his foot against the floor so that the bench continues to swing. 

Shuichi opens his eyes and glances at Rantaro. “And how does that make you feel?”

“Sad, I guess,” Rantaro admits. “But it’s her choice. I’d feel guilty if she stayed here only for me. I want her to stay where she’s comfortable, you know? I sorta understand why she doesn’t want to stay anyway. It must be hard to feel loved if you waited for so long to be found. I can’t blame her really.”

“At least she understands that you love her,” Shuichi says, drumming his hands against his own stomach. “I can tell she does. She looks at you with trust.”

“She’s too understanding,” Rantaro answers. “She’s only twelve and she’s already been through so much.”

“And now you can put things right.” Shuichi closes his eyes once more. “Her mother, is it right to call her that? Well, her mother said you’re allowed to write and call as much as you want. She gave you her email, right?”

“Yeah. All of the carers did,” Rantaro says. He’s not sure how he feels when his sisters call strangers mum and dad. Well, it’s more like these people are strangers to him. It’s hard to get his head wrapped around the idea. For now, he calls these people carers instead.

“Some of them are staying with you too.”

“That’s because they never found anyone to look after them.”

Shuichi bites the inside of his mouth. One of the sisters, Ai, had been found by Shuichi inside of a hospital. Apparently, she’d been in the hospital a little over a week before being found. She’d been brought in after someone found her collapsed on the street. Shuichi tries not to think about it. 

“They’ve got you now,” Shuichi says weakly. He spares a glance at the twelve sisters. They were all excited to see each other. Whilst Shuichi and his group were picking them up, each one of them got increasingly more and more impatient as they travelled. Not only did they miss their big brother but they also missed each other. “I’m sure they’ll keep in contact. They didn’t seem too angry at you.”

“It’s their parents they were angry at,” Rantaro agrees, although his stomach is starting to do somersaults. He does feel a little guilty when he recalls his dad’s face and all of his wife's too. Then again, they were the ones who didn’t put much effort into finding them, most of them having demanding schedules that dominated their time instead. 

At least Rantaro seems a little more at ease now. He’s looking at his sisters with an expression of happiness now instead of an expression of sadness. 

When Shuichi yawns, Rantaro laughs at him. 

“Tired?”

“Exhausted,” Shuichi admits. “I’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow too.”

Rantaro recalls the stack of papers Shuichi has left on Rantaro’s desk. It’s an impressively high stack. Rantaro is worried Shuichi is going to overwork himself getting all of that done tomorrow. 

“You should go to bed. I’m sure the girls won’t mind,” Rantaro tells him. 

“I’m comfortable here,” Shuichi says. He knows he’s dangerously close from falling asleep but he’s cosy and he feels safe. He likes it better when he’s asleep with someone nearby anyway. 

Rantaro rolls his eyes. “I’m not carrying you up if you fall asleep on me.”

“You sure about that?” Shuichi grins. “You’re the biggest softy I know.”

Rantaro knows Shuichi is right. He wouldn’t let him sleep outside all night. Rantaro would feel really guilty if Shuichi got sick right now. 

“I hate that you’re right,” Rantaro mutters, giving the ground an extra hard kick. 

“Hey, Rantaro?”

“Yeah?”

Rantaro’s breath catches in his throat because sometimes, but not that often, he forgets how stunning his boyfriend looks. Shuichi’s grey eyes are twinkling as he looks up at him, his expression relaxed for once. Does Shuichi know how much he makes Rantaro’s heart pound? Probably not because Rantaro knows how self deprecating Shuichi can be. Rantaro makes a note to remember to tell Shuichi how amazing he is more often. 

“I love you,” Shuichi says. 

Putting a hand to his mouth, Rantaro tries to hide his grin. Yeah, he knows he’s an idiot but he’s an idiot who is in love so it’s fine. He’s kind of surprised when he feels his eyes sting because hey, who would’ve thought three simple words would make him react this way? Maybe Shuichi is right, maybe he is a huge softy.

“I love you too, Shu.”

It’s out of the blue but hey, Rantaro thinks it’s great if Shuichi is confident and happy enough to say such powerful words to him. Maybe he should feel a little concerned because Rantaro thinks he’s going to get a little addicted to the love word and he’s not sure if he can hold himself back from saying it every day now. 

Rantaro goes back to stroking Shuichi’s hair. His boyfriend is finally falling asleep like Rantaro predicted. He can’t get too mad though. 

“I bet you said that to me so I’d carry you upstairs,” Rantaro says, more to himself. He sighs and focuses on his sisters. 

He’s going to miss them when they leave. Some of them, like Ai and Miyu are staying of course but it’s mostly the older ones who are leaving, the ones that Rantaro has spent the most time with in his life. He’s just found them and they’re going to leave him again. Only, this time at least he has a way of contacting them all. There’s no way in hell Rantaro is going to lose his sisters again for a second time. 

Some of his sisters end up coming to see him a little while later. He’s slowly starting to fall asleep too, although he’s not in as deep a sleep as Shuichi is. At least his boyfriend is a quiet sleeper. 

“Is choo choo sleeping?” Miyu asks, 

“Choo choo?” Rantaro repeats. Then, he bursts out laughing, covering his hand with his mouth so he doesn’t wake Shuichi up. “Do you mean Shu?”

“Choo!”

“You look cosy,” Aya says with a smirk. Clearly, she hasn’t lost her almost sadistic sense of humour. Apparently, her favourite pastime is to still torment her older brother. 

“Shut,” Rantaro says, not even bothering to finish a full sentence. 

“Aw…” Rin looks disappointed. “I was gonna ask him to play princess with us too!”

“I’m sure he’ll play with you tomorrow,” Rantaro reassures her. 

“But Yuka is going tomorrow and she really wants to play with him right now too!” Ran insists. 

“That’s a lie,” Aya easily says. “Yuka isn’t even playing princesses.”

The twins both pout. “You’re no fun, Aya!”

Rin and Ran both run off, ready to torment the next person they run into. 

“Choo choo!” Miyu continues to shout, getting louder and louder. 

“C’mon! Let’s go somewhere else,” Aya says, holding Miyu’s hands above her head as they both wander off somewhere deeper into the garden. 

Rantaro keeps an eye on them both. He can’t help it. He knows that there’s no way they can get lost because the garden is fenced off but there’s always that off chance that…

No, it’s not healthy to think like that. He knows Aya is smart enough to not wander off. She was the first sister to confront Rantaro about his own feelings, realising that he’s been devastated about their disappearances for years. 

He kicks off the ground and swings slowly again, letting the sun warm his skin instead. Right now, he has nothing to worry about. He’s got everyone he needs right in front of him. 

\---

It’s a lot harder than expected saying goodbye to Yuka the next day. Yuka’s adoptive mother arrives just before lunch. She looks like a friendly woman with hair that is the same colour as the night. 

“We’ll keep in contact,” she says, trying her best to communicate in a language that she doesn't really understand. “We promise.”

“I’ll email you everyday!” Yuka promises as she hugs her only brother. “And, um, I got you this!”

She presents him with a ring. Rantaro takes it and can’t help but think there’s some familiar about it. 

“I sort of took it on our last trip together,” Yuka admits. “It fell off your finger and I went to pick it back up. When I looked back up, everyone was gone.”

“Ah,” Rantaro says, his voice wobbly. “I’m sorry about that.”

“I’m sorry too!” Yuka sniffles. “I didn’t mean to cause you so much trouble!”

“But everything worked out in the end,” Aya buts in before any real tears can be shed. “C’mere you!”

All of the sisters each take turns saying goodbye to each other until it’s finally time to go. 

“Thank you for giving her this opportunity,” Yuka’s adoptive mother says as she opens the front door. There’s a taxi waiting for her. “We will communicate, yes?”

“Of course,” Rantaro reassures her. “But, um, please. Take care of her?”

“I love her as if she was my own,” she answers. “Please take care too.”

Rantaro doesn’t stop waving until the taxi is out of sight. His arm aches as he finally lets it fall to his side. Honestly, he wants to cry but he wants this to be a happy memory. His sister is living the life she wants. Rantaro wants nothing but happiness for his sisters. 

The rest of them slowly go back into the house one by one and Rantaro only closes the door once he’s sure every single one of them is back inside. He hears them go upstairs and he hopes they aren’t too noisy because Shuichi is working in Rantaro’s bedroom right now. 

Shuichi hadn’t wanted to intrude on Rantaro and his sisters so had decided to stay upstairs whilst they said their farewells. Rantaro is pretty sure he saw Shuichi say goodbye to Yuka himself though around an hour ago. 

He goes to his bedroom and sure enough, Shuichi is sitting at Rantaro’s desk. He’s got a pair of reading glasses on as he reads through some important looking papers, muttering to himself. Rantaro decides to leave him be and he lies down on his bed, closing his eyes. 

It’s probably going to hurt every time one of his sisters leaves. After talking to them, eight of them want to go back to where they got lost. Which is, yeah, it’s fine, it really is. It’s going to hurt but he’s slowly accepting it. He’s still going to have four of his sisters living with him permanently. It’s just, he sort of expected that all of his sisters would want to stay with him. He never really realised that they all might’ve found new families. He’s happy that most of them weren’t hurting the entire time they were lost but...he’s just going to really miss them. 

He finally cries for real this time because he figures that hey, why not. It’s healthy to cry, right? His face is buried in a pillow anyway so it’s not like anyone can see him. Shuichi can probably hear him and he’s probably going to come over and lie down with him again soon but Rantaro hopes that he doesn’t so that he can concentrate on getting his work done. Rantaro doesn’t want to get on Maki’s bad side, thank you very much. 

Instead, thankfully, Shuichi only shoots him a concerned look before Rantaro mouths for him to just continue his work. Which he does but Rantaro knows Shuichi is going to maybe want to talk about this tonight. 

He ends up falling asleep and wakes up a couple of hours later, his hairy messy and his face blotchy. He’s sort of getting sick of crying now but it’s something he can’t help. 

Straight away, he notices that the desk is empty. He finds Shuichi lying next to him, fast asleep. Shuichi has an arm resting over Rantaro’s chest, almost holding him as he sleeps. It’s cute. 

Rantaro decides that he deserves a couple of more minutes rest before going downstairs to cook dinner. He’s sure one of his sisters will come and get him if they get hungry. He closes his eyes and goes back to sleep, feeling a feeling that can only be described as bittersweet.


End file.
